GB2465789A

GB2465789A - Audio jack connector

Info

Publication number: GB2465789A
Application number: GB0821797A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Chris Adol
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2008-11-28
Filing date: 2008-11-28
Publication date: 2010-06-02
Anticipated expiration: 2028-11-28
Also published as: GB0821797D0; GB2465789B

Abstract

An audio jack connector comprises a jack plug 10 having a pin comprising tip 13 and sleeve 15 segments, a jack socket 20 having tip 23 and sleeve 25 contacts configured to connect to the tip and sleeve segments of a jack plug mated with the jack socket, and cable connection means 30 having first and second cable contacts 33, 35. There may also be ring contacts (212, 222, 232. Fig 4). Connectors may be stacked, see Fig 3.

Description

Audio Jack Connector The invention relates to an audio jack connector for connection with a jack socket provided in audio apparatus. The audio jack connector finds particular utility

in the field of modular synthesis.

Patch cables are used to provide an electrical connection between two audio devices to transfer electrical signals therebetween. To interconnect an audio patch cable and an audio device, a jack plug is commonly provided at an end of a length of patch cable which can mate with a corresponding jack socket provided in the audio device.

Jack plugs are generally formed to have electrical contacts in a tip-ring-sleeve (TRS) type segmented arrangement on a pin, the contacts being separated by insulating rings. Jack sockets are generally formed to receive a jack plug pin and are provided with a plurality of contacts arranged to connect to the respective TRS contact of the connected jack plug pin, when fully mated.

The number of electrical contacts provided on a jack plug connected to a patch cable is related to the number of electrical signal carrying components provided in the patch cable itself. This, in turn, depends on the type of signal needed to be carried by the patch cable. By convention, the sleeve contact in jack plugs and is used to provide a ground connection for earth shielding provided in audio patch cables as wire mesh surrounding a wire conductor core or cores which carry the electrical audio signal or signals. For an unbalanced mono signal iransfer, a patch cable having only a single signal-carrying core is required, and so only a two-contact tip-sleeve' jack plug is provided to connect the cable to a corresponding two-contact jack (the wire core being connected to the tip contact). For a balanced mono or an unbalanced stereo signal transfer, a patch cable having two signal-carrying cores is required, and so a three-contact tip-ring-sleeve' jack plug is provided to connect the cable to a corresponding three-contactjack (the wire core being connected to the tip and ring contacts).

By the widespread use ofjack connectors, standard diameters have been established for jack plugs and their corresponding jack sockets. Originally, jack plugs used to patch mono telephone signals in exchanges were, by convention, 1/4 inch (6.3mm) in diameter. However, more recently, smaller, standard diameters of 1/8 inch (3.5mm -the miniature' size standard) and 3/32 inch (2.5mm -the subminiature' size standard) have been established and these find common use in transferring signals between personal and professional audio apparatus.

In the field of audio modular synthesizers, in which a variety of sounds are generated by combining signals output from different discrete electronic modules, audio patch cables are used to connect the different synthesizer modules together.

Many manufacturers of modular synthesizers provide modules which are configured to be interconnected by patch cables having standard 3,5mm mini-jack' plugs. In particular, modules manufactured to conform to the Euro-rack format (such as those manufactured by Doepfer Musikelektronik GmbH) will usually have mini-jack sockets as standard.

It is commonly required, when using.a modular synthesizer, to route or transfer a signal from a single source to multiple destinations. In modular synthesizers that use mini-jack connectors and patch cables, this is achieved using a multiple' module, an example of which is shown in Figure 1. This multiple module takes an input signal at one mini-jack input 101 and routes it to multiple mini-jack socket outputs 103 at which the input signal is shared.

However, these multiple' modules take up valuable room within the modular synthesiser rack that could instead be used by other synthesizer modules. Further, in order to split more than one signal at a time, a plurality of these multiple' modules is required, taking up even further room in the modular synthesizer rack and can be expensive.

As an alternative, modular synthesis modules produced by some synthesizer manufacturers are configured to be interconnected by patch cables using banana plugs instead of mini-jack plugs, and the individual modules are provided with banana connector sockets. Banana connector plugs that can be stacked, or connected together, are known. This type of banana connector plug can be used in modular synthesizers and by combining together patch cables that use these stackable banana connector plugs, the output signal can be split without needing to use a multiple' module mentioned above.

In view of this, some people spend time and money converting/rewiring their mini-jack compatible synthesisers to instead use banana plugs, in order to provide this patch cord-stacking functionality in Euro-rack format modular synthesisers.

However, the inventor has realised that, unfortunately, by using banana plug connections and patch cables in modular synthesizers, a signal is carried by the patch cables for which no shielding is provided in the cabling to guard against interference.

As a result, unwanted noise is introduced into the output audio signal. Further, as there are over 200 modular synthesiser modules on the market, the cost to a manufacturer to convert all the existing modules from mini-jack type interconnections to use banana connector type interconnections would be prohibitively expensive.

In contrast, patch cables using jack connectors (and mini-jack connectors) are advantageous because, as described above, they can carry a signal (or signals, in the case of stereo) and are provided with electrical shielding which can be grounded to drain' away any exterior interference. This reduces the amount of noise generated in the cabling as the signals are transferred. However, in order to continue to use patch cabling having mini-jack plugs in Euro-rack format modular synthesizers without having to use wasteful multiple' modules and without converting to unshielded banana plugs would require the use of two-way line splitters or two-way adapters for every cable to be connected to a mini-jack socket in the synthesizer. This would result in a large number of cables and adapters which would be messy and would be costly to the user.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide apparatus for routing a signal output from an audio jack connector-compatible modular synthesiser module to multiple destinations without needing to use a multiple module.

Viewed from a first aspect, the present invention provides an audio jack connector comprising: a jack plug having a pin comprising tip and sleeve segments; a jack socket having tip and sleeve contacts configured to electrically connect, in use, to the tip and sleeve segments, respectively, of a stacked jack plug mated with the jack socket; and cable connection means having first and second cable contacts; wherein the sleeve segment, sleeve contact and first cable contact are arranged to be electrically connected to each other; and wherein the tip segment, tip contact and second cable contact are arranged to be electrically connected to each other and electrically isolated from the sleeve segment, sleeve contact and first cable contact.

Audio jack connectors according to the invention can be connected to a signal output jack socket of a modular synthesizer module such that the audio signal output therefrom is shared between the jack socket of the connector and the cable connection means. In use, a first length of patch cabling can be appropriately connected directly to the cable connection means such that the wire mesh shielding is connected to the first cable contact and the signal carrying core is connected to the second cable contact, and ajack plug of a second patch cable can be mated with the jack socket of the connector of the invention. In this use arrangement, the audio signal output from the modular synthesizer is applied to the signal carrying wire core (or cores) of both the first and second patch cables via the second cable contact of the cable connection means and the tip contact of the jack socket, respectively, to share the audio signal with both patch cables. Further, in this use arrangement, the wire mesh shielding of both the first and second patch cables is grounded via the first cable contact of the cable connection means and the sleeve contact of the jack socket, respectively, to shield the audio signals carried in the wire cores of both patch cables from noise and electrical interference that would otherwise be picked up during signal transfer.

The audio jack connector according to the invention, used in this way, enables a signal output from a modular synthesizer module to be routed to multiple destinations in a simple and easy way without having to use a multiple' module or to convert the entire modular synthesizer to use banana connectors or a complicated arrangement of two-way adapters and splitters. Further, using the audio jack connector according to this invention allows the signal output from a modular synthesizer module to be split in this simple way while ensuring the routed output signal is shielded from noise and electrical interference during signal transfer.

Audio jack connectors according to the invention can be mated together, or stacked up', to further increase the number of routed output signal paths, without having to use a multiple module. For example, by stacking first and second audio jack connectors according to the invention together and inserting them in a modular synthesizer module output, the signal output from the modular synthesizer is in this case applied to: the cable connection means of the first audio jack connector; the cable connection means of the second audio jack connector; and the jack socket of the second audio jack connector; and the output signal can therefore be routed through three patch cables connected at these three different locations. More than two audio jack connectors according to the invention can be stacked up together and used to multiply an output audio signal in a neat way that takes up no space in the rack of a modular synthesizer.

A rigid housing is preferably arranged to support the jack plug, jack socket and cable connection means. According to this preferred form of the invention, the components of the audio connector are rigidly held in a single structure that can be easily handled for mating and demating with other jack plugs and sockets and can be simply stacked together to multiply an output signal.

Preferably the jack plug and jack socket of the connector are axially aligned.

This preferred form of the invention provides a simple and neat stacking arrangement of the connectors.

The sleeve segment, sleeve contact arid first cable contact are preferably integrally formed. The tip segment, tip contact and second cable contact are preferably integrally formed. In these preferred forms of the invention, the electrical contacts between the jack plug, jack socket and cable connection means are ensured and the useful life of the connector is therefore increased. For example, the absence of any physical interconnections or soldered contacts means electrical failure is less likely. Further, where a rigid housing for the connector is provided, these arrangements lend themselves to simple injection molding manufacturing processes.

The integrally formed components can be positioned in a mold, and, for example, a thermoplastic resin housing can then be formed around the components of the audio connector to form a rigid housing to support those components.

The cable connection means is preferably in the form of a soldering post. A soldering post is preferably provided for each cable contact. These preferred forms of the invention provide a simple means for connecting the components of an audio patch cable to the cable connection means of the connector by simply soldering the appropriate patch cable components to the soldering post or posts.

The jack socket is preferably formed to mate, in use, with a jack plug pin having a diameter the same as a diameter of the jack plug pin of the connector. The jack plug pin and jack socket preferably conform to the mini-jack 1/8 inch (3.5mm) standard. This preferred form of the invention finds particular utility in the field of modular synthesis, where the mini-jack dimension standard is commonly adopted, and so by using mini-jack sized connections, no adaptation or conversion of the modules is required.

The present invention also provides an audio patch cable comprising: a cable having a wire core surrounded by an electrically isolated shielding; and an audio jack connector of the invention; wherein at one end of the cable the shielding is electrically connected to the first contact of the cable connection means and the wire core is electrically connected to the second contact of the cable connection means.

Preferably, in the audio jack connector of the invention, the pin of the jack plug further comprises a ring segment, the jack socket further comprises a ring contact and the cable connection means further comprises a third cable contact, which are electrically connected to each other and electrically isolated from the sleeve segipent, sleeve contact and first cable contact and from the tip segment, tip contact and second cable contact. The ring segment, ring contact and third cable contact are preferably integrally formed. In these preferred forms of the invention, the audio jack connector can be used to for sharing two signal channels and a grounded shield at two different points can be used to transfer, for example, a balanced mono signal, or an unbalanced stereo signal. In this case, the present invention also provides an audio patch cable comprising: a cable having a two electrically isolated wire cores surrounded by an electrically isolated shielding; and an audio jack connector of this preferred form of the invention; wherein at one end of the cable the shielding is electrically connected to the first contact of the cable connection means, one wire core is electrically connected to the second contact of the cable connection means, and the other wire core is electrically connected to the third contact of the cable connection means.

The present invention also provides apparatus comprising a modular synthesizer module and an audio jack connector of the invention.

Viewed from a second aspect, the present invention provides an audio jack connector having ajack plug and jack socket each having a plurality of contacts in a tip-sleeve or tip-ring-sleeve arrangement, a cable connection means having a corresponding number of electrical contacts, and a housing supporting the jack plug, jack socket and cable connection means, wherein the tip-sleeve or tip-ring-sleeve contacts of the plug, of the socket, and of the contacts of the cable connection means, are mutually electrically connected such that, in use, a jack plug can be mated with the jack socket of the connector and a patch cable can be connected to the cable connection means of the connector to share electrical signals therewith and to be grounded thereby.

The various preferred features of the first aspect of the invention are also applicable to the second aspect, either individually or in combination. Further, the above-described advantages of the first aspect of the invention are also provided by the second aspect of the invention.

Certain preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic front view of a multiple module compatible with mini-jack plugs manufactured by Doepfer Musikelektronik GmbH; Figure 2 is a schematic partial cut-away view of an audio jack connector of a first embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 is a schematic partial cut-away view of first and second audio jack connectors of the embodiment shown in Figure 2 in a stacked configuration inserted into an output socket of a modular synthesizer module; Figure 4 is a schematic partial cut-away view of an audio jack connector of a second embodiment of the present invention; Figure 5 shows a comparison of an audio jack connector of an embodiment of the invention in two different diameter standards.

A first embodiment of the stackable mini-jack plug 1 of the invention shown in Figure 2 has a rigid housing 3, typically made of a thermoplastic resin material, supporting ajack plug 10, ajack socket 20, and cable connection means 30. The jack plug 10 has a pin 11 extending through the front of the housing 3, and the jack socket is provided inside a bore 21 defined inside the housing 3. The bore 21 and the pin 11 are axially aligned, and the bore 21 is provided with an opening 22 at the rear of the housing. A side bore 21 is defined in the housing 3 at one side thereof, in which the cable connection means 30 is provided.

The pin 11 of the jack plug 10 has a tip segment 13 contact and a sleeve segment 15 contact which are electrically separated by an insulator ring 17. The pin 11 is 3.5 mm in diameter and is formed to comply with the miniature jack dimension standard such that it is mateable with mini-jack sockets. In the cross-sectional form of the pin, the contacts 13, 15 of the jack plug 10 are arranged in the conventional way, with the tip contact 13 and isolation ring 17 extending inside the sleeve 15 segment, while being electrically isolated therefrom by the isolation ring 17. At the rear of the pin 11, where it extends through the front of the housing 3 and is supported thereby, the tip contact 13 and the sleeve contact extend axially outwardly to provide flanged sections 1 3a, 1 5a, respectively.

The components of the jack socket 20 are provided inside the bore 21. The jack socket 20 has a tip contact 23 and a sleeve contact 25. The tip contact 23 is integrally formed with the flange 13a to extend rearwardly in the bore 21 and has a hooked deformable spring section 23a at its distal end. The tip contact 23 is electrically connected to the flange 1 3a. The sleeve contact 25 is ring shaped in its form, having an inner diameter of 3.5mm to receive a mini-jack plug pin, and is provided at the rear of the bore 21 adjacent the opening 22 in the housing 3. The opening 22 is also dimensioned to receive a mini-jack plug pin. The sleeve contact 25 is electrically connected to the flange 1 5a by an axially extending section 25a, extending along the wall of the bore, at one side thereof. The sleeve contact 25 and axially extending section 25a are integrally formed with the flange 1 5a. The sleeve contact 25 and axially extending section 25a are arranged to not contact, and to be electrically isolated from the tip contact 23, and flange 1 3a. The tip contact 23 and sleeve contact 25 are arranged in the conventional way to as to engage and electrically connect to tip and sleeve segments, respectively, of a mini-jack plug mated with the jack socket 20.

The components of the cable connection means 30 are provided inside the side bore 31. A first cable contact 35, formed as a soldering post, is integrally formed with, and electrically connected to the axially extending section 25a of the ring electrode to extend from one side thereof A second cable contact 33 is integrally formed with, and electrically connected to flange section 1 3a. The first cable contact is arranged to not contact, and to be electrically isolated from the second cable contact 33. The audio jack connector 1 can be connected to one end of a patch cable (not shown) having a single wire core surrounded by an insulated wire mesh by inserting an end of the patch cable into the side bore 31, and electrically connecting the wire mesh shielding to the soldering post of the first cable contact 35 by soldering, and electrically connecting the wire core to the second cable contact 33, again by soldering.

The sleeve segment 15, sleeve contact 25 and first cable contact 35 are thus electrically connected to each other. The tip segment 13, tip contact 23 and second cable contact 33 are thus also electrically connected to each other but they are electrically isolated from the sleeve segment 15, sleeve contact 25 and first cable contact 35.

Referring to Figure 3, which shows the use of a first audio jack connector I and an identical second audio jack connector 51, both according to the first embodiment of the invention, in use in a stacked arrangement, and inserted into an output socket 0 of a modular synthesizer module M, which can be used to route an audio signal S to three different locations.

Audio patch cables (not shown) are connected appropriately to each of cable connection means 30, 80 of the first audio jack connector I and second audio jack connector 51. The pin 61 of the jack plug 60 of the second audio jack connector 51 is inserted into and mated with the jack socket 20 of the first audio jack connector I. The pin 11 of the jack plug 10 of the first audio jack connector I is mated with the output socket 0 of the modular synthesizer module M, the contacts of which connect to the pin 11 such that the sleeve segment 15 is grounded to earth and the tip segment 13 is electrically connected to the audio signal output S. In this use arrangement, the wire mesh shielding of the two audio patch cables are grounded via the first cable contacts of the cable connection means 30, 80 such that the wire cores are shielded from electrical interference. The signal S is applied to the wire cores via the second cable contacts of the cable connection means 30, 80. A third audio patch cable having a mini-jack plug mated with the jack socket 70 of the second audio jack connector 51 also has its wire mesh shielding grounded via the sleeve contact of the jack socket 70 and has the audio signal S applied to its wire core via the tip contact of the jack socket 70. In this way, the three shielded audio patch cables can route an audio signal S from a single output socket 0 of a modular synthesizer module M, requiring only two audio jack connectors according to the invention, and without requiring the use of a multiple' module.

Figure 4 shows an audio jack connector 201 according to a second embodiment of the invention, which can be used to transfer audio signals via patch cables in which two signal-carrying wire cores are provided for transmitting balanced mono or unbalanced stereo. The audio jack connector 201 of the second embodiment includes an additional ring segment 212 provided on the pin 211 of the jack plug 210.

The additional ring segment 212 is arranged between the tip 213 and sleeve 215 segments and electrically isolated therefrom using isolation rings 21 7a, 21 7b in the conventional way. Similarly, a ring contact 222 is provided in the jack socket 220 and a third cable contact 232 is provided in the cable connection means 230, for -12-contacting to the ring segment of a tip-ring-sleeve jack plug mated therewith and to the second wire core of a patch cable, respectively. The ring segment 212, ring contact 222 and third cable contact 232 are electrically connected and integrally formed. The ring segment 212, ring contact 222 and third cable contact 232 are electrically isolated from the sleeve segment 215, sleeve contact 225 and first cable contact 235 and from the tip segment 213, tip contact 223 and second cable contact 233.

Alternatively, instead of providing the audio jack connector to have a jack plug and jack socket conforming to the 3.5mm diameter miniature jack standard (as shown in Figure 5a), the jack plug and/or jack socket may instead conform to the 1/4 inch(6.3mm) (as shown in Figure 5b) diameter phone jack standard or the 2.5mm diameter subminiature jack dimension standard.

The audio jack connectors of all embodiments of the invention may be manufactured to be supported by a housing by simple molding. The components of the jack plug, jack socket and cable connection means may be arranged inside a mold, around which a thermoplastic or thermoset resin is injected to form the housing.

Claims

Claims: 1. An audio jack connector comprising: a jack plug having a pin comprising tip and sleeve segments; a jack socket having tip and sleeve contacts configured to electrically connect, in use, to the tip and sleeve segments, respectively, of a jack plug mated with the jack socket; and cable connection means having first and second cable contacts; wherein the sleeve segment, sleeve contact and first cable contact are arranged to be electrically connected to each other; and wherein the tip segment, tip contact and second cable contact are arranged to be electrically connected to each other and electrically isolated from the sleeve segment, sleeve contact and first cable contact.
2. A connector as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a rigid housing arranged to support the jack plug, jack socket and cable connection means.
3. A connector as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the sleeve segment, sleeve contact and first cable contact are integrally formed.
4. A connector as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the tip segment, tip contact and second cable contact are integrally formed.
5. A connector as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the cable connection means is in the form of a soldering post.
6. A connector as claimed in claim 5, wherein a soldering post is provided for each cable contact.
7. A connector as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the jack socket is forn-ied to mate, in use, with a jack plug pin having a diameter the same as a diameter of the jack plug pin of the connector.
8. A connector as claimed in claim 7, wherein the jack plug pin and jack socket conform to the mini-jack 1/8 inch (3.5mm) standard.
9. A connector as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the pin of the jack plug further comprises a ring segment, the jack socket further comprises a ring contact and the cable connection means further comprises a third cable contact, which are electrically connected to each other and electrically isolated from the sleeve segment, sleeve contact and first cable contact and from the tip segment, tip contact and second cable contact.
10. A connector as claimed in claim 9, wherein the ring segment, ring contact and third cable contact are integrally formed.
11. An audio patch cable comprising: a cable having a wire core surrounded by an electrically isolated shielding; and an audio jack connector as claimed in any of claims 1 to 8; wherein at one end of the cable the shielding is electrically connected to the first contact of the cable connection means and the wire core is electrically connected to the second contact of the cable connection means.
12. Audio patch cable comprising: a cable having a two electrically isolated wire cores surrounded by an electrically isolated shielding; and an audio jack connector as claimed in claim 9 or 10; wherein at one end of the cable the shielding is electrically connected to the first contact of the cable connection means, one wire core is electrically connected to the second contact of the cable connection means, and the other wire core is electrically connected to the third contact of the cable connection means.
13. Apparatus comprising a modular synthesizer module and an audio jack connector as claimed in any of claims ito 10.
14. An audio jack connector having a jack plug and jack socket each having a plurality of contacts in a tip-sleeve or tip-ring-sleeve arrangement, a cable connection means having a corresponding number of electrical contacts, and a housing supporting the jack plug, jack socket and cable connection means, wherein the tip-sleeve or tip-ring-sleeve contacts of the plug, of the socket, and of the contacts of the cable connection means, are mutually electrically connected such that, in use, a jack plug can be mated with the jack socket of the connector and a patch cable can be connected to the cable connection means of the connector to share electrical signals therewith and to be grounded thereby. -16-